List of Attacks

The Myth:

Muhammad always
Chose Peace over War

"Our Prophet (peace be upon him) never fought unless there was no other path and he had exhausted all efforts for peace"

The Truth:

Actually, Muhammad rarely if ever opted for peace
when he had the power to dominate. As the Hadith records in many places,
the prophet of Islam said that he had “been called to fight all men until they
testify that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger.” The
goal of Islam is the rule of Islam.

Although originally invited to Medina to be a
peacemaker, the prophet of Islam immediately brought war to this
community of traders by first raiding Meccan caravans - which brought down foreign hostility
on all residents - then later exploiting internal divisions for personal gain.
(See Myth: The
Muslims were under Meccan Persecuted at Medina for a timeline of Muhammad's
constant attempts to provoke war with the Meccans).

As we have
detailed, Muhammad conquered each of the Jewish tribes at Medina as soon as
he had the ability. He also did what he could to provoke the
Battle of Badr, forcing the Meccans to fight
when they clearly did not want war. Near the end of his life, he directed
a continuous series of foreign military expeditions to attack people who were
not attacking the Muslims, with the goal of obtaining
tribute or
conversions.

One example that refutes the myth that Muhammad
chose peace over war is when a report came to him that a man named Usayr ibn
Zarim was attempting to gather an armed force against the Muslims.
According to the true story of what happened (found in Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 981),
Muhammad sent an armed band to Usayr's community, which convinced him that he
would be guaranteed safe passage to a meeting with Muhammad to discuss peace.
Obviously interested in peace, the leader and his thirty companions trusted Muhammad and made themselves vulnerable, whereupon the unarmed men were summarily
slaughtered by the Muslim tricksters.

Another well-documented example is the series of events leading up to the taking
of Mecca by his army in 630. As we have shown, the Muslims were
the first to break the treaty between
themselves and the Meccans by not returning fleeing Muslims to Mecca (as
stipulated in the agreement) as well as by raiding Meccan caravans and murdering the
drivers (both before and after the treaty). But when a tribe allied with the Meccans killed members of a
tribe allied with the Muslims in revenge for an earlier murder, it was feared the Muhammad would not be so
accommodating.

The leader at Mecca was a man named Abu Sufyan.
Anticipating that the Muslims might look for an excuse to attack his people, Abu
Sufyan traveled to Medina to engage Muhammad in dialogue for the purpose of assuring peace between
the two parties. Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 807 details the poor man’s efforts to see the
Muslim leader in a long passage that plainly indicates his mounting desperation
for peace.

It is during this visit that Abu Sufyan enters
the homes of a number of prominent Muslims, including Muhammad’s son-in-law and
daughter. Clearly he is not interested in harming them. In the end,
Abu Sufyan is rebuffed by Muhammad and does not gain the opportunity to talk
peace. The prophet of Islam is more interested in a surprise attack on
Mecca:

[Muhammad] said, “Oh Allah, take eyes and ears from
the Quraysh [Mecca] so that we may take them by surprise in their land,” and the men got
themselves ready. (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 808)

In that the other Meccans had no
idea that they were supposed to be at war with the Muslims, Muhammad was
entirely successful:

When the apostle had reached Marr al-Azhran, [the] Quraysh were completely
ignorant of the fact and did not even know what he was doing. (Ibn
Ishaq/Hisham 811).

When Abu Sufyan learned that Muhammad was marching on the city, he made
one last
effort to talk peace with him, this time attempting to use the Muslim leader’s
wife as an intercessory. The woman attempted to reason with Muhammad, referring
to Abu Sufyan and his companion as Muhammad’s own “cousin and brother-in-law”
(which he was). Muhammad turned them away with this reply:

“I have no use for them. As for my cousin, he as wounded
my pride; and as for my
aunt’s son and my brother-in-law, he spoke insulting of me in Mecca.” (Ibn
Ishaq/Hisham
811)

Thus, according to his own biographers, the prophet of Islam chose to go to war
against an unwilling party merely out of personal pride and personal offense. After conquering Mecca
he even ordered the executions of those who had insulted him, apparently
oblivious to the hypocrisy, since it was a third-party revenge killing that he
originally used as justification for his own attack on the city.